MIM-contracted driver David Vidales will conclude his five-race Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe campaign this weekend at the waterfront Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia with the six-hour Endurance Cup championship finale.
Although David will not be fighting for championship honours on Saturday when the teams’ and drivers’ titles will be decided, the 22-year-old Spanish driver aims to put in a good showing in his AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3 after a season of ups and downs.
A particularly positive run at Spa-Francorchamps in June followed on from a tough GT racing debut for rookie Vidales at Paul Ricard in April, while disappointment at Monza due to a technical problem in September came after a top-10 finish and another encouraging performance at the Nürburgring in July.
With these four endurance races on classic European tracks behind him, David is now getting ready to tackle a completely new environment, namely the 6.174 km high-speed Jeddah street circuit, the venue for the Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Precision and bravery will be required this weekend as the GT cars lap close to the walls for six hours on a fast flowing 27-turn layout that is sure to guarantee exciting racing.
“Finally it’s race weekend again, this time with my Ferrari 296 GT3 car after a lot of karting for me,” declared David. “My last race was in Monza so it’s been a while and it’s going to be a challenging one. Jeddah is a street circuit, a high-speed street circuit as well, so it’s not going to be easy. From my side, it’s going to be about building up the confidence with the car with the new track, getting closer to the walls lap by lap and finding the limits, I think that’s going to be the key. So I’m really looking forward to it, it’s the last race of the championship, I hope we are going to have a good one and finish the season on a high.”
For the second successive race Vidales will be partnered with Ferrari’s endurance racing regular Yifei Ye from China and Frenchman Thomas Neubauer in the PRO category.
Track action gets underway on Thursday 28 November with two official test sessions in the afternoon, with Free Practice (15:30 CET) and Pre-Qualifying (20:15) on Friday. The 49-car field will qualify for the starting-grid on Saturday morning at 11:45, while the six-hour race will be flagged away at 17:00. All sessions and the race will be broadcast live on the GT World YouTube channel.
